


I'd Choose the Storm

by psiten



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game), Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: 8tracks, Deezer - Freeform, Embedded Audio, Fanmix, Inspired by Fanfiction, M/M, liner notes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-19
Updated: 2019-08-19
Packaged: 2020-09-07 21:00:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20315938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/psiten/pseuds/psiten
Summary: FST for the fanfic "Out of Time" by stardropdream, which is a Shiro/Keith Voltron fic set in a Life is Strange fusion AU.





	I'd Choose the Storm

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Out of Time](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19130128) by [stardropdream](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardropdream/pseuds/stardropdream). 

> Since not everyone has user accounts on the same streaming services, I wanted to make two options available so people can choose which to use depending on where they have accounts, or how they want to hear the songs if they don't have either services. Both 8tracks and Deezer have options for people that are not logged in or don't have accounts ("anonymous"), users that have free accounts, and users that have paid accounts.
> 
> Obviously, if you use the player for a service where you have a paid account, and you are logged in, you will get the streaming experience you pay for. Notes on playback limitations for each service for anonymous and free users are included above the player embeds.

8tracks player (anonymous/free users hear full tracks with ads, repeat plays will be in random order)

[I'd Choose the Storm](https://8tracks.com/psiten/i-d-choose-the-storm?utm_medium=referral&utm_content=mix-page&utm_campaign=embed_button) from [psiten](http://8tracks.com/psiten?utm_medium=referral&utm_content=mix-page&utm_campaign=embed_button) on [8tracks Radio](https://8tracks.com?utm_medium=referral&utm_content=mix-page&utm_campaign=embed_button).

~//~

[Playlist on Deezer](https://www.deezer.com/playlist/6379596104) (anonymous users hear 30sec previews with no ads, free users hear full tracks with ads, always plays in playlist order)

~//~

Track List and Liner Notes:

  1. **"Laughter Lines" by Bastille** \- The fic by stardropdream has a moody tension throughout, building up to an ending where you can't look away (even if you know what's coming because you're familiar with the setting). The heart that makes that work without becoming overly stressful or tiring out the reader is the beautiful relationship being rekindled between Shiro and Keith, former childhood best friends who haven't spoken to each other in six years because [SPOILERS] and who have changed in almost every way except the most important ones. And one of the most important things about people falling in love is that they enjoy being together. For me, this song speaks to both their childhoods, their separation, and the moments where they choose to be together again, with a tone that has the hope and joy they get from being together: the thing that keeps the narrative poignant and whole when the choices they make are salted with cruelty.
  2. **"An Unexpected Rain" by Melissa Etheridge** \- This is for painful goodbyes we regret but can't take back, the people we thought we'd never see again, and everyone who ever "tried to do [their] best" and "never meant to hurt no one". (C/W - brief implication of self-harm).
  3. **"Wishlist" by Pearl Jam** \- For a playlist that's over 1/3 Heavy Metal bands, this is a very soft collection... which somehow feels appropriate to me, for a story about the vulnerable hearts inside people who've learned to be hard? This particular song chosen for the things we want to be for others, if we only knew how, especially when we want to be everything they ask for.
  4. **"Stormbringer" by Deep Purple** \- I've actually tried to background the oncoming storm in this playlist in favor of focusing on what makes Shiro and Keith's relationship evolve the way it does, which is why I wanted this to be the song that references it directly. Unlike most songs I know about storms, this one isn't about hiding or getting to safety, and for me, it resonated strongly with the internal conflict of the characters as much as a physical weather phenomenon.
  5. **"Dreams" by The Cranberries** \- On one level, everything in this list is about matching the tonality of the story, where hope and despair kind of feel like two ends of a pole you're holding while walking a tightrope. It was very important to me to represent that as well as the more concrete elements -- here, a little of Keith's bewilderment at everything happening around him. Things _are_ changing. The world is shifting fast, and in a way that feels like it can be hard to tell where reality ends and dreams start... although I will confess a little shippy sentimentality in the choice of song because it also refers to how Keith anchors himself to Shiro ("'cause you're a dream to me").
  6. **"Beautiful Times" by Owl City** \- How many songs are there about living a life as a hard fight under a darkening sky, but with a true, unironic joy in what you have? Not even _despite_ the hardship, or because you like struggle, but because you can still see what you have?
  7. **"Thunder Road" by Bruce Springsteen** \- Yeah, there's a solid 50% chance this song will end up on any given Shiro/Keith playlist I make because that whole, "We're reckless and wild, let's jump on the road together and just go WIN," vibe is the epitome of what makes Shiro and Keith be _Shiro and Keith_. And they definitely still have that in this story. Not sorry.
  8. **"Guilty" by Paloma Faith** \- Transitioning out of the exposition and establishment of characters into the conflict that drives the story, I was blown away by the author's sensitive depiction of Shiro and Keith feeling responsible for things beyond their control, and the question of what it means that you're here because someone else paid a price. The words in the story are subtle, but the emotions were belted out perfectly clear, such that I had to have a song with the same energy somewhere at the core of this playlist.
  9. **"Polaroid" by Imagine Dragons** \- /looks into the camera like on The Office. Forgive me for my literalism, please, but this actually fit these two boys really well here. I couldn't not.
  10. **"Nightswimming" by R.E.M.** \- This is one of the very few songs that I almost never put on a playlist because it means so much, so precisely (and can be overused because it's such a classic), that I need to feel like it's too right for anything else to work. When I wanted to highlight the moment in the pool that seemed like such an emotional catalyst for absolutely everything that led up to the conclusion, I knew it had to be this, because it wasn't just the actions that happened to match. Those moments of closeness, discovery, and simultaneous secrecy with complete openness resonated with the music as well.
  11. **"The Unforgiven" by Metallica** \- This song is actually the reason I decided to make a playlist for "Out of Time". After reading it, while going back to the real world and remembering the various scenes I'd liked, I could hear it playing in my head. "What I've felt, what I've known / Never shined through in what I've shown / Never be, never see / Won't see what might have been / What I've felt, what I've known / Never shined through in what I've shown / Never free, never me / So I dub thee unforgiven". There's so much of that energy here.
  12. **"In My Life" by The Beatles** \- Presented without comment.
  13. **"You Can't Do It Right" by Deep Purple** \- It's hard for me to sum up what I was thinking here without spoilers, so I'm just going to say... Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
  14. **"Your Decision" by Alice in Chains** \- There's a degree to which all of the songs I used for the decisions leading up to the conclusion, and the conclusion itself are kind of... self-explanatory? This is because of the call Keith has to make, and no one can make it but him.
  15. **"Silent Lucidity" by Queensryche** \- For being beside someone, and just _knowing_.
  16. **"Breathe Me" by Sia** \- We've seen a long path in Shiro and Keith's lives, from being friends as children, to being separated by years and miles, to finding each other and learning how they've changed, to tentatively wondering if there's something between them they both want to give a chance to. This is the song for when the answer is Yes.
  17. **"Time in a Bottle" by Jim Croce** \- The last two songs are for the two sides of the choice Keith has to make. Given the option to do it all over again, Keith is sure of what he wants, and what he can't imagine a world without.
  18. **"The Price You Pay" by Bruce Springsteen** \- Kind of a vocal callback to "Thunder Road", since that's my quintessential Shiro/Keith song, and there's also something very in character about both of them knowing that choices have consequences, and being prepared to accept the consequences for knowing what they want without minimizing either the weight of the cost or the importance of being sure this is the right thing _for you_. I very much appreciate how well this fic illustrated the "one or the other, the choice is yours" poignant immediacy -- again, the quiet tension of balance between joy and despair that runs through the story and that I tried to keep alive in the music to celebrate it -- that more classical/scholastic versions of this dilemma like the Trolley Problem utterly lack. The story brought that feeling home, so that's the note I wanted to end on.

Thank you for listening, and I tried as hard as I could to avoid spoilers in case anyone here hasn't read the story... if you go on to do so, i hope you enjoy it!


End file.
